NEW YORK - The Harry Potter film franchise will not go gentle into that good night.

And Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the hugely successful movies, couldn't be happier about the tone of the sign-off.

Opening worldwide July 15, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is a rousing finish to an iconic film series, poised to beat The Dark Knight's $158.4-million US opening-weekend record in North America.

"The quality is amazing, and it's darker, and the movie really gave me a chance to stretch myself as an actress," said 21-year-old Watson at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel before the Manhattan Deathly Hallows: Part 2 premiere.

In the David Yates-directed swan song, the action picks up where Part 1 left off. Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has raided Dumbledore's tomb to obtain the Elder Wand, one of three Deathly Hallows items that will grant him immortality.

When their mission leads the trio back to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a showdown looms: The eye-popping wand battle between Harry and Voldemort counts as the climactic tour de force.

Part 2 isn't all manic action, however. Images of friends and family from previous adventures show up in ghostly form. So does the dearly departed Dumbledore, who reveals a few secrets.

One Hogwarts scene with Harry, Hermione and Ron near the conclusion was especially emotional for Watson.

"I was able to use a lot of my genuine emotion that I felt about loss, and all of it coming to an end," she said of the series and the sequence.

"The set was actually built looking out over Leavesden Studios, which is where I grew up, essentially. I spent the last 12 years there. So, yeah, not much acting required, really."

On the lighter side, let's not forget the much-discussed kiss between Ron and Hermione, and their blossoming relationship. "Everybody wants to talk about the kiss," she said.

Meanwhile, there is her life after Potter.

The self-confident Watson said she's returning to London to attend Oxford University in the fall, taking a break from her studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

"I haven't left Brown," she said. "I'm still enrolled at Brown, so I'll go back to the States to do my last year."

Besides her duties as "the new face" of Lancome, she has a few non-Potter films on her agenda.

She co-stars in My Week with Marilyn, which stars Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, and is set to open in November. She also just wrapped the film version of the Stephen Chbosky novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which has Watson playing an against-type party girl.

"Which was just the most incredible experience," Watson said. "I'm very excited about that movie. Having an experience like that outside of Harry Potter is what really convinced me that acting is what I should be doing."

She's even come to grips with the unrelenting fame from the Potter series, including speculation that she was leaving Brown University because of bullying. "Not true," she said.

Mostly, she's lived her life in front of cameras, either acting in Potter productions or promoting the films.

"Once I sort of came to terms with it (fame), it definitely helped me deal with it," Watson said.

Indeed, she's been famous, and a little bit isolated, for longer than she's been anonymous.

"So I feel fortunate, in that I've never really known what it's like to have total freedom. It's not as though I had it and all of a sudden it was taken away from me. Fame's something I grew up with, something that happened gradually, and I haven't really known anything else."

The daughter of British lawyers, Watson moved from Paris to Oxfordshire, England, with her mother after her parents' divorce.

A young Watson attended the Oxford branch of the Stagecoach Theatre arts program, where she performed in amateur productions, but never anticipated what would follow when she auditioned for the role of Hermione.

"We knew almost from the first moment we saw her that Emma was going to be our Hermione," said Potter producer David Heyman.

Now, Watson has made the transition from a nine-year-old girl to a young adult.

"And I have a career, and I've learned how to be an actress, and how films are made, and I still managed to maintain my own sense of identity away from something that potentially could have been overwhelming," said Watson. "So, I guess that I'm glad that I have that. I was quite a stubborn young girl, I guess." Still, the determined actress said she's "a little apprehensive" about the future.

"Change is always scary, but I feel very excited, and I feel like I'm entering a new chapter and getting a fresh start."

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